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Have I Got News for You
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Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You (HIGNFY) is a British television panel show, produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC, which premiered on 28 September 1990. It focuses on two teams, one captained by Ian Hislop and one by Paul Merton, plus a guest panellist on each answering questions on various news stories on the week prior to an episode's broadcast. The programme's format focuses more on the topical discussions on the subject of the news stories related to questions, and the satirical humour derived from these by the teams. This style of presentation had a profound impact on panel shows in British TV comedy, making it one of the genre's key standard-bearers.
The programme aired on BBC Two for its first ten years, before moving to BBC One in 2000. Until 2002, it was hosted by Angus Deayton, who was sacked following reports in national newspapers of several scandals about his private life. Since then, it has been hosted by a different celebrity each week; many of them add their own comedy. While the standard episodes are broadcast on Fridays, since 2003 extended versions of each episode, initially titled Have I Got a Little Bit More News for You and later simply Have I Got a Bit More News for You, have been broadcast, originally on the following Saturdays on BBC Two, and later moved to the Mondays of the following weeks on BBC One, although Monday repeats of Series 70 are standard 29-minute episodes. Repeats of older episodes are named Have I Got Old News for You or Have I Got a Bit More Old News for You. Currently, only episodes from series 65 onward are available on BBC iPlayer.
The programme has gained widespread acclaim for its contribution to British television and comedy, receiving multiple awards at the British Comedy Awards including Best New Comedy Programme in 1991, Best Entertainment Series in 1992, Best Comedy Gameshow in 1999 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. It also received the 2016 BAFTA Television Award for Comedy and Comedy Entertainment Programme.
Have I Got News for You was initially conceived as a pilot for the BBC called John Lloyd's Newsround. The BBC had commissioned Hat Trick Productions to make a television show which was like a more topical version of Hat Trick's Whose Line Is It Anyway? (developed by future Mock the Week creators Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson), but it was decided that the show would follow a template more in keeping with Radio 4's The News Quiz. Hat Trick hired a producer with a track record in radio comedy, John Lloyd, and filmed a pilot with a title which aped long-running Children's BBC programme John Craven's Newsround.
After filming the pilot, John Lloyd decided not to proceed as chairman, and the job fell to comedian Angus Deayton, after try-outs with future News Quiz host Sandi Toksvig and a pre-fame Chris Evans in the main role. The team captains – Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye and a staff writer for Spitting Image, and Paul Merton, comedian and Whose Line Is It Anyway? cast member – returned from the pilot.
Since its first broadcast on 28 September 1990, the BBC has commissioned two series each year, the number of episodes being divided between the Spring series, broadcast from April to June, and the Autumn series, shown from October to December. The Autumn series takes a week's break to make room for the Children in Need special. For the first ten years of its existence, the programme was shown on BBC Two. Hislop has been the longest-serving member of the three on the programme since its premiere. He has not missed a single episode. Merton took a break during the 11th series in 1996, saying he had become "very tired" of the show and thought it had become "stuck in a rut". In his absence, his role was assigned to a guest team captain each episode, with Merton himself returning for one episode as a guest on Hislop's team. Merton returned for the following series as team captain, deeming that his absence had given the programme the "shot in the arm" it needed and that it had been "better ever since".
By 2000, the BBC made a decision to relocate its late evening news bulletin from nine o'clock to ten o'clock, after ITV moved their long-running ten o'clock bulletin to eleven o'clock. The resulting move caused a gap in its schedule that needed filling; Have I Got News for You was moved to BBC One and given access to a broader audience in October that year. In 2002, Deayton was caught using illegal drugs and soliciting sex with a prostitute – a fact that he was ridiculed for on the programme, after it became headlines – putting his private life under scrutiny by news media outlets. Further scandal effectively forced the BBC to terminate Deayton's contract with them two episodes into the programme's 24th series.
At short notice, Merton hosted the first episode after Deayton's departure, with a series of guest hosts appearing for the remainder of the series, including Anne Robinson, Boris Johnson, and Jeremy Clarkson. Despite an initial search for a permanent successor to Deayton, having a different guest host each week proved successful, with average audience figures increasing from 6 million to 7 million, leading to it becoming a permanent feature in the programme's format in June 2003.
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Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You (HIGNFY) is a British television panel show, produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC, which premiered on 28 September 1990. It focuses on two teams, one captained by Ian Hislop and one by Paul Merton, plus a guest panellist on each answering questions on various news stories on the week prior to an episode's broadcast. The programme's format focuses more on the topical discussions on the subject of the news stories related to questions, and the satirical humour derived from these by the teams. This style of presentation had a profound impact on panel shows in British TV comedy, making it one of the genre's key standard-bearers.
The programme aired on BBC Two for its first ten years, before moving to BBC One in 2000. Until 2002, it was hosted by Angus Deayton, who was sacked following reports in national newspapers of several scandals about his private life. Since then, it has been hosted by a different celebrity each week; many of them add their own comedy. While the standard episodes are broadcast on Fridays, since 2003 extended versions of each episode, initially titled Have I Got a Little Bit More News for You and later simply Have I Got a Bit More News for You, have been broadcast, originally on the following Saturdays on BBC Two, and later moved to the Mondays of the following weeks on BBC One, although Monday repeats of Series 70 are standard 29-minute episodes. Repeats of older episodes are named Have I Got Old News for You or Have I Got a Bit More Old News for You. Currently, only episodes from series 65 onward are available on BBC iPlayer.
The programme has gained widespread acclaim for its contribution to British television and comedy, receiving multiple awards at the British Comedy Awards including Best New Comedy Programme in 1991, Best Entertainment Series in 1992, Best Comedy Gameshow in 1999 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. It also received the 2016 BAFTA Television Award for Comedy and Comedy Entertainment Programme.
Have I Got News for You was initially conceived as a pilot for the BBC called John Lloyd's Newsround. The BBC had commissioned Hat Trick Productions to make a television show which was like a more topical version of Hat Trick's Whose Line Is It Anyway? (developed by future Mock the Week creators Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson), but it was decided that the show would follow a template more in keeping with Radio 4's The News Quiz. Hat Trick hired a producer with a track record in radio comedy, John Lloyd, and filmed a pilot with a title which aped long-running Children's BBC programme John Craven's Newsround.
After filming the pilot, John Lloyd decided not to proceed as chairman, and the job fell to comedian Angus Deayton, after try-outs with future News Quiz host Sandi Toksvig and a pre-fame Chris Evans in the main role. The team captains – Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye and a staff writer for Spitting Image, and Paul Merton, comedian and Whose Line Is It Anyway? cast member – returned from the pilot.
Since its first broadcast on 28 September 1990, the BBC has commissioned two series each year, the number of episodes being divided between the Spring series, broadcast from April to June, and the Autumn series, shown from October to December. The Autumn series takes a week's break to make room for the Children in Need special. For the first ten years of its existence, the programme was shown on BBC Two. Hislop has been the longest-serving member of the three on the programme since its premiere. He has not missed a single episode. Merton took a break during the 11th series in 1996, saying he had become "very tired" of the show and thought it had become "stuck in a rut". In his absence, his role was assigned to a guest team captain each episode, with Merton himself returning for one episode as a guest on Hislop's team. Merton returned for the following series as team captain, deeming that his absence had given the programme the "shot in the arm" it needed and that it had been "better ever since".
By 2000, the BBC made a decision to relocate its late evening news bulletin from nine o'clock to ten o'clock, after ITV moved their long-running ten o'clock bulletin to eleven o'clock. The resulting move caused a gap in its schedule that needed filling; Have I Got News for You was moved to BBC One and given access to a broader audience in October that year. In 2002, Deayton was caught using illegal drugs and soliciting sex with a prostitute – a fact that he was ridiculed for on the programme, after it became headlines – putting his private life under scrutiny by news media outlets. Further scandal effectively forced the BBC to terminate Deayton's contract with them two episodes into the programme's 24th series.
At short notice, Merton hosted the first episode after Deayton's departure, with a series of guest hosts appearing for the remainder of the series, including Anne Robinson, Boris Johnson, and Jeremy Clarkson. Despite an initial search for a permanent successor to Deayton, having a different guest host each week proved successful, with average audience figures increasing from 6 million to 7 million, leading to it becoming a permanent feature in the programme's format in June 2003.